A plasma pen creates a tiny electrical arc that jumps from the tip of the device to the surface of the skin without ever touching it. That arc discharges as a precise, extremely shallow point of heat.

Two things happen at once. The point of contact sublimates a microscopic amount of surface tissue, which causes the skin around it to contract immediately. Beneath that, the heat triggers the fibroblasts, the cells responsible for producing collagen and elastin, into a repair response that continues for months.

So there is an immediate tightening you can see on the day, and a slower, more meaningful remodelling that builds over the following months.

It is often marketed that way, and the phrase does more harm than good. Plasma pen can produce genuine, visible tightening of the upper eyelid, and for many people that is enough to change how their eyes look and feel.

What it is not is a blepharoplasty. Surgery removes tissue; plasma pen contracts it. If you have a significant amount of excess skin resting on your lashes, plasma pen will improve it rather than resolve it, and you may need more than one session to reach a result you are happy with.

Anyone showing you a single-session result that looks surgical is showing you either an unusually good candidate or a misleading photograph.

It is a controlled thermal injury, deliberately confined to a very shallow depth. That is the mechanism, and it is why crusts form afterwards.

What separates a good result from a bad one is control: the spacing between points, the depth of each one, the settings used for that particular skin, and knowing when to stop. Done properly the injury stays within the layer that regenerates cleanly. Done carelessly it goes deeper and risks scarring and pigmentation.

This is not a treatment where the operator matters slightly. It is a treatment where the operator matters more than the device.

Loose or hooded upper eyelid skin, crow’s feet, fine lines around the eyes and mouth, forehead lines and frown lines, nasolabial folds, and crepey texture on areas such as the neck and décolletage.

It also has a role in improving the appearance of some scars and stretch marks.

What it does not do is add volume, replace lost fat, lift deeper structural sagging, or treat pigmentation. Skin that has descended because the underlying support has changed is not a skin-surface problem.

The tissue that is contracted does not come back, so the change is long-lasting in a way that most non-surgical treatments are not. Many clients see results holding for around three years, and some longer.

What continues regardless is ageing. Plasma pen resets the clock on a particular area; it does not stop it. How long your result lasts depends heavily on sun exposure, smoking, genetics and how your skin ages generally.

The best candidates have mild to moderate laxity, fair to medium skin, no history of keloid scarring or post-inflammatory pigmentation, realistic expectations, and the ability to take ten days where the treated area looks obviously treated.

You are a poor candidate if you have significant sagging that needs tissue removed, if you cannot avoid sun for weeks afterwards, if you need to look normal next week, or if you are hoping for a surgical result without surgery.

Every plasma pen client is assessed in person before treatment. We do not book this treatment sight unseen.

This needs a careful and honest conversation. Plasma pen is a controlled thermal injury, and heat-based injury in skin that produces melanin readily carries a real risk of post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, which can take many months to resolve.

For deeper skin tones the risk profile changes enough that in many cases we will recommend microneedling or another approach instead. Where treatment is considered, a test patch and a much more conservative approach are essential.

Any clinic that tells you skin tone is irrelevant to plasma pen is not being straight with you.

Delayed during pregnancy and breastfeeding, with active infection, cold sores, eczema or dermatitis in the area, with sunburn or a fresh tan, after recent laser, peels or injectables that have not settled, and if you have a holiday or event within the next six weeks.

Generally avoided or requiring medical clearance with a keloid or hypertrophic scarring history, a strong tendency to post-inflammatory pigmentation, uncontrolled diabetes, active autoimmune conditions, current or recent isotretinoin, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, pacemakers and certain implanted electrical devices, and epilepsy.

If you have a history of cold sores anywhere near the treatment area, tell us. Preventative antiviral cover from your doctor is often recommended before treating around the mouth or eyes.

Yes, with sensible spacing. Let injectables settle fully before plasma pen, and let plasma pen heal fully before further injectables.

Tell us exactly what you have had and when. Treating over unsettled filler is not something we will do.

Not an age, but a threshold of laxity. Once there is enough excess skin that it needs to be removed rather than contracted, plasma pen becomes an expensive way to get a partial result.

The assessment is about how much skin there is and how it behaves when it is gently lifted, not about the number on your birth certificate. Plenty of clients in their sixties and seventies are excellent candidates.

Around ten days for the carbon crusts to form, dry and fall away by themselves on a facial area. The neck and body run several days slower at every stage.

After the crusts come away, the fresh skin underneath is pink. That pink stage typically lasts one to three weeks and is easily covered with mineral makeup once the skin is intact.

So the honest answer to “how much time do I need off” is: ten days where the area looks obviously treated, and a few weeks after that where you may want makeup.

The table below assumes a facial area. Allow extra days on the neck.

No. This is the single most important instruction of the entire treatment.

Every crust that is removed early exposes skin that had not finished healing underneath it. That is how you get a mark that lasts, pigmentation that takes months to fade, or in the worst case a scar in a grid pattern.

They will come away by themselves. Ten days of restraint protects a result you are keeping for years.

Keep the area clean and dry. Use only what you were given, applied exactly as directed. Sleep elevated for the first few nights, particularly after eyelid treatment.

Avoid until the crusts have come away naturally: makeup on the treated area, swimming, saunas, steam, spas, heavy sweating and the gym, facials and active skincare, and any picking, scrubbing or exfoliating.

Avoid sun completely for the first month and be strict about sunscreen for at least three months afterwards. Sun on healing plasma skin is the most reliable way to cause lasting pigmentation.

Do not use makeup to cover the crusts. Wait until the skin is intact.

On the eyelids it can be significant. Many clients wake on day two with swelling that noticeably narrows their field of vision, and it can look alarming if you were not warned.

It settles substantially by day three to four. Sleeping elevated genuinely helps, as does avoiding alcohol and salt in the days beforehand.

Swelling that worsens after day four, spreads well beyond the treated area, or comes with heat, pain or discharge is not normal healing. Call the clinic on 1300 216 456 and see a doctor.

It depends entirely on whether you mind being seen with visible crusts. They are not hideable and makeup cannot go over them.

Clients who work from home often return immediately. Clients who are client-facing usually take the ten days, or book the treatment before a period of leave. This is the treatment where planning your calendar first is the sensible order of operations.

Common and expected: carbon crusts, swelling that can be pronounced around the eyes, tightness, itching during healing, and a pink stage of one to three weeks afterwards.

Uncommon: prolonged pink or redness beyond a month, temporary dryness or sensitivity, milia, cold sore reactivation, and small areas that heal more slowly than the rest.

Rare but serious: infection, post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation, hypopigmentation, and scarring including a visible pattern where crusts were removed early.

Almost all of the serious outcomes come from one of three causes: treating skin that should not have been treated, going too deep, or aftercare that allowed picking, infection or sun exposure.

Not when performed correctly on suitable skin with aftercare followed. The plasma point is deliberately confined to a depth that regenerates without scarring.

It can when crusts are picked, when the grid is placed too densely or too deeply, or when the skin was not a good candidate in the first place. The pattern of plasma pen scarring is distinctive and difficult to correct, which is the strongest possible argument for choosing your operator carefully and following the ten-day rule.

Post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation is the risk that most often takes months to resolve. It is more likely in deeper skin tones, in anyone with a history of pigmenting after injury, and in anyone who gets sun on healing skin.

Prevention is the whole strategy: honest candidate selection, conservative settings, complete sun avoidance for the first month, and disciplined sunscreen for at least three months.

Call 1300 216 456 or use the contact page if pain increases after the first couple of days, if redness spreads beyond the treated area, if there is heat, throbbing, yellow discharge or a foul smell, if swelling worsens rather than settles after day four, if you develop a fever, or if you notice any change in vision after eyelid treatment.

Crusts, swelling, itching and pinkness on the expected timeline are normal. The signs above are not, and they need same-day attention from a doctor as well as from us.

Price depends on the area and its size. Upper eyelids, crow’s feet, the mouth area and larger regions such as the neck are priced separately.

Rather than publish a figure here that can go out of date, current prices are shown against each area on our booking page.

View current plasma pen pricing and availability.

Assume so, unless your assessment suggests otherwise. A single session gives visible but usually partial improvement, and moderate hooding commonly needs two to three sessions spaced at least twelve weeks apart.

Working out the likely total before you begin is far better than discovering it at your twelve-week review.

Yes. Options are set out on our payment plans page, and you can ask about them at consultation.

Because operator experience, assessment quality, device quality and time spent are what you are actually paying for, and all of them can be cut.

Of everything we offer, plasma pen is the treatment where choosing on price carries the highest cost if it goes wrong, because the complications are pigmentation and scarring on visible facial skin, and both are difficult and slow to correct.